This is my World

A patriot and a terrorist are not much different. Both have motives. Both have ideologies. Both fight an oppressor, sometimes through violent means. And both are willing to lay down their lives for the cause they fight for. However, what differentiates a patriot and a terrorist is the heart. More precisely, the presence of one. That is why calling Velupillai Prabhakaran a terrorist is absurd. Chapter 1: History of Tamils in Lanka Mahavamsa, one of the oldest historical chronicles of Srilanka and Buddhism in Srilanka, mentions that when Prince Vijaya(the first Sinhalese king) of Bengal arrived in Lanka in 543 B.C., he had to fight the natives Nagas and Yakkas to establish his reign over the Island. Mahavamsa repeatedly refers the Nagas and the Yakkas as demons and dwellers of the underworld. Historians have used this as an evidence to propagate their theories that Nagas and Yakkas were mythological creatures and were not human beings. However, there are others who argue that...

Content warning: This is neither a review of the book, nor a narration of its plot. It is just my very own fantasy.  Ever since I read sir Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan about two years ago, I have fancied a movie based on the plot and its characters. Two attempts have been made over the last sixty years, but both have failed to take off. The first one was in the 1960's with MGR in the lead (apparently the actor was going to direct the movie). The second one was in 2010's with Dr. Vijay (pun intended) in the lead. Mani Ratnam was to direct the movie and if he had, I would have declared a fatwa on him. Thanks to A.R. Rahman who saved us from this agony.  We probably have passed the times this novel of epic scale can be turned into a movie and in my humble opinion, stage plays, curt and curtained as they are, can never do justice to this 2500 page epic that spans across at least 300 years and two countries. So, I just keep fantasizing it my head and here it is for your readin...

The world has seen many entrepreneurs who run businesses to be successful and wealthy, but Tamil Nadu produced a man who turned an entrepreneur to fight the might of the British and to prove them that India can stand up on its own legs. In this venture of his, he lost all his wealth and led a life of sacrifice so that we can breath freedom.  Chapter 1: Early years V.O. Chidambaram Pillai (VOC) was born on September 5, 1872 in Ottapidaram (the same place where Veerapandiya Kattabomman's memorial fort is). He was the eldest son of Olaganathan Pillai, an eminent lawyer and Parvathi ammal. He did his schooling in Ottapidaram, Thoothukudi(Tuticorin) and Thirunelveli, learnt English from a Taluk officer, and read Ramayana and Mahabharatha with his  grandparents. After finishing his schooling, he was employed as a clerk in the Thoothukudi Taluk office briefly before he went to Thiruchi to study law. He graduated in 1894 and a year later, returned to...

Dear feminists(both men and women),  I appreciate you on taking up this noble venture. Your efforts in fighting for the rights of women who have been oppressed in our  society for long and your yearning for equality are laudable. However, I feel many of you have lost direction off late and you are  simply clinging on to the feminist raft to find shore rather than to set sail. I wouldn't blame you, the precedents are bad.  Feminism demands political, economical, cultural and social equality for women. Fair demands, I believe. In the west, feminist  movements began with the calls for equal representation in polity, voting rights, right to education and property, workplace rights  such as maternity leave and equal pay, reproductive rights and things alike. In the east particularly India, feminism started out as a  movement aimed at abolishing sati, killing of girl children and child marriage while promoting the rights of a woman in marr...

Today, politicians go around talking about austerity and good governance when they live in palatial residences, travel by bullet-proof benz', run billion dollar businesses while they sleep in the parliament. They talk of serving the society selflessly when they illegally stash away money in their Swiss bank accounts and junket around the world in private jets. In these times of looting and selfishness, it might be strange to know that only a half a century ago, there lived a great man who reigned over the country for about two decades and he still died with just 130 rupees in his account. The name of that great man is Kamarajar. He has been forgotten, ignored and written away by us and INDIAN historians. The least we could do is remember him on his birthday while we try to learn a few lessons from the life of this mighty man.  Chapter 1: Early years Kamarajar was born into a family of traders in Virudhunagar(yes, my native) on July 15, 1903. His fath...

India knows a lot about the so-called first war of independence and Mangal Pandey. Least does it know that it was not the first uprising of its kind. In fact, the first large-scale revolt against the British took place a thousand and eight hundred kilometres south, in a town called Vellore in 1806, twenty-one years before Mangal Pandey was even born. The revolt: On July 10, 1806, at three in the morning, five hundred Indian soldiers from the Vellore fort, armed with hundreds of muskets and two small cannons, slithered out of the Indian barracks and stole their way to where the Europeans were stationed. Briefly, they waited outside the European barracks for a signal to be issued. Finally when the signal came, the doors of the Europeans barracks were blown away. Some Indian soldiers rushed into the barrack and opened fire on the British soldiers who were asleep. Others blasted the barrack from the outside. The British soldiers who were stationed in the Vellore fort did not fight back....

In the late 1940s, when Potti Sreeramulu began protests to carve out a separate state for Telugu speaking people from the Madras presidency, he demanded(more like pitched in for a demand that had been there since 1920) that Madras be made the capital of Andhra. Though the then prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, favoured reorganisation of states based on administrative convenience rather than on linguistic lines, he promised Potti Sreeramulu a separate state, but there was little progress made because of the demand for Madras. Tamils were opposed to annexing Madras with Andhra and this led to stalemate. It was during this time, the Telugu leaders launched Madras Manade(Madras is ours, in Telugu) movement. Countering this, another movement was launched in Tamil Nadu by the organisation Tamil Arasu Kazhagam. It was called Madras Namade(Madras is ours, in Tamil). The Tamil Arasu Kazhagam under the leadership of its founder organised various protests and rally against annexing Mad...